The Tale is Well Ended
by Rose DiVerona
Summary: "Sell it. Keep it. Do whatever makes you and your family happy." What would the Evers do with the Gracey Estate? My epilogue to the movie.


A/N: The Disney movie "The Haunted Mansion" was on tonight on ABC, and as I was watching it I came up with an idea for a short little one-shot epilogue for the movie. Ever since the first time I saw it, I've always wondered - would the Evers have lived at the Gracey Estate, or sold it? This is my version of how it could have ended up. Fluffy family short.

Disclaimer: Disney owns Haunted Mansion, both the ride and the movie.

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**The Tale is Well Ended**

"So, what do you think?" Jim Evers asked, spearing a hot dog on a metal poker and sticking it into the fire. His wife, Sara, who was helping their son Michael with his own plate, looked around them, at the luscious grass and trees, and the peaceful lake a few yards away. She smiled.

"It's beautiful, dear."

"Isn't it?" Jim agreed. His own eyes didn't wander, but flashed to his wife and back to the flames. "I mean, it needs a lot of fixing up, but after that, who knows?"

"Honey, we just replaced the kitchen floor. Let's wait a while before we start on another project, okay?" Sara asked.

Megan Evers slapped her forehead. "Mom, he isn't talking about the _lakehouse_!" she groaned.

Jim still looked confused. "What? The lakehouse…? Oh, I see. Sara, I was talking about the Gracey Manor!"

Sara's cheeks flushed. "I see. Yes, it is beautiful, dear, but I still think we should wait to assess all that needs to be done on it before we get too eager. Once it's restored, it should sell easily, but that could take quite a while."

"I don't want to sell it," Michael piped up, surprising the rest of his family.

Since the events of the night before, Michael had been strangely quiet. He spent most of the day inside with Madame Leota and the Five Singing Busts. Since it was such pretty weather, everyone else wanted to be outside by the lake. Plus, no one wanted to be anywhere near the quintet of singers.

"Michael, you know that isn't possible," Sara said gently, "That mansion is too big for us. Plus, it's way out in the middle of nowhere!"

"So?" Michael said, shrugging. "Mom, Mr. Gracey left the house to us. There's a lot of history, a whole story behind it! If we sell it to someone else, they'll never understand! I think he'd want us to live in it."

"I agree with Michael," Megan said.

Jim and Sara exchanged looks. That had to be the first time Megan agreed with her brother on anything in years.

"Megan? You wanna live in a big old house in the middle of nowhere?" Jim asked skeptically.

"Why not?" Megan shrugged, "It's cool!"

Jim gazed into the fire for a moment longer. Then he turned to his daughter.

"Why don't you go get Madame Leota, and we'll see what she thinks?"

Megan turned eagerly and ran into the cottage, Michael on her heels.

"Jim, let's not encourage this," Sara whispered to her husband. He didn't answer.

Megan and Michael returned a few minutes later, carefully hefting Madame Leota in her crystal ball between them. As she always did when moved, Leota looked nauseous and miserable. Once set down on the grass, however, she looked slightly better. She glared reproachfully at Jim.

"Why must you move me? I was not meant to be transported from place to place like a handbag!"

"I'm very sorry, Madame Leota, but we need to discuss something with you." When Leota rolled her eyes and nodded at Jim to go on, he continued, "Where will you go from here? Will you come home with us?"

Leota laughed. "Home? With you? No, that cannot be. If you haven't noticed, I'm a talking head inside a crystal ball. The only place I'll ever belong is the manor. I must return to it."

"What about when we sell it?" Sara questioned.

"I do not know. All that is clear is that, for whatever reason, I am tied to Edward Gracey's estate and cannot be away from it for long."

"See, Mom?" Michael pushed. "We can't sell the house, 'cuz who would buy a house with a freaky gypsy lady and singing heads? They'd think it's haunted!"

"It is," Leota said dryly, with a grin.

"Was," Jim corrected, "We put all the restless spirits to rest, remember?"

Leota gave a noncommittal twitch.

"So…what do we do?" Megan asked, squinting from one parent to the other.

Jim turned to his wife. "Sara, I really think we should keep the manor. It's a fine place to live, and the kids are right – with its history, it wouldn't be right to just sell it off to someone who might not appreciate it."

Megan and Michael cheered. Sara looked like she couldn't believe her husband had been bought over.

"But Jim – after everything that happened to us, almost getting killed – you want to live there?"

"Yes, I do, and here's why – I forgot about the important things in life, Sara. I missed our anniversary to sell a house, and I was willing to postpone our lake trip to get another house out on the market. I told myself it was fine, that neither you nor the kids really cared, but that wasn't true. I almost lost you back there at that place, and that's when I got some sense knocked into me. I realize now how much you mean to me – how much you all mean to me. We got through it, we learned from it, and we set many souls at rest. All in all, I'm not sorry we got detoured at the mansion. We came together as a family, which is exactly why I think we should live there. Selling it off wouldn't be right. Besides, what would happen to Leota and the "barbershop quintet" if we sold it? We have an obligation, Sara. We can't abandon it now." Jim looked expectantly at his wife. Megan and Michael watched with bated breath. Even Leota was silent, for once.

Sara wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed him. "Is that how you feel?" she asked, smiling.

"That's how I feel," Jim nodded.

"Then you're absolutely right. We should live at the Gracey Manor."

Megan and Michael cheered and hugged their parents. Madame Leota looked pleased. Somehow, she'd grown rather attached to the Evers family.

"Why don't we celebrate our new house?" Jim proposed. "Michael, run inside and get the s'more supplies!"

Michael ran inside, leaving the screen door open. The voices of the Five Singing Busts could be heard from the living room, raised in tune:

"The screen door is open, the screen door is open, the screen door is open, better shut it before it gets cold, before it gets cold!"

The Evers family laughed and gazed out at the lake, imagining the new home that awaited them…and the memories of a certain night at the "Haunted Mansion" they would never forget.

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A/N: As you can see, just a little blurb. Review? 


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